OBS Chapter 386 There must be more to the story behind the blank seal case.
Chapter 386 There must be more to the story behind the blank seal case.
Did Zhu Xi's descendants create the blank seal case?
And the An Yin case is related to that old man Zhu Chongba.
Yang Shaofeng immediately became very curious and turned to Xia Yu to ask, "Did Zhu Jian bring him to Ningyang County?"
Xia Yu shook his head and replied, "Zhu Jian is not a criminal official, so he was not brought to Ningyang County."
"Furthermore, Zhu Jian is not a descendant of Zhu Wengong; he is merely a fraud."
Impersonating a relative?
Zhu Xi was really unlucky.
The excellent Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism has been distorted and misinterpreted.
Various anecdotes smearing Zhu Xi were circulated widely.
Zhu Xi himself was falsely accused of incest and letting his son kill an ox.
That intensity was almost on par with online harassment.
Now another Zhu Jian has emerged, using the name of a descendant of Zhu Xi to commit fraud related to blank seals.
Tsk tsk.
While inwardly complaining, Yang Shaofeng looked at Zhu Shouchun and asked, "Zhu Shouchun, do you know about Zhu Jian's impersonation of a relative?"
Zhu Shouchun nodded obediently: "Your Highness, I understand."
You never know what you'll find until you do; what you find is truly astonishing.
Zhu Jian is a fraudulent descendant of Zhu Xi.
This kind of thing is actually very common.
After all, everyone hopes to have a powerful and awesome ancestor.
This was especially true for the gentry and wealthy merchants.
Even after Zhu Chongba became emperor, officials advised him to find a powerful ancestor.
Just like Li Erfeng recognized Laozi, the founder of Taoism, as her ancestor.
Then the problem is coming.
During the Warring States period, there was a famous man named Zhu Hai. Li Bai also wrote a line in his poem "The Knight-Errant": "I will roast meat and eat Zhu Hai."
The problem is that Zhu Hai was a butcher by trade, and his most glorious moment was "stealing the tally to save Zhao," which did not meet the needs of the officials.
There was another famous figure during the Three Kingdoms period named Zhu Shixing.
The problem is that this Zhu Shixing is a monk, and his Dharma name is "Bajie," which also does not meet the needs of the officials.
Finally, after much deliberation, the officials chose Zhu Xi.
The founder of Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism, a great Confucian scholar.
Being Zhu Chongba's ancestor would be extremely fitting.
As for whether this great Confucian scholar becoming Emperor Zhu's ancestor would bring any benefits to us officials.
When it comes to matters concerning scholars, how can one only think about whether it has advantages or disadvantages?
The problem was that after the officials painstakingly selected Zhu Xi as the ancestor of Emperor Zhu, Emperor Zhu said, "If we falsely acknowledge Zhu Xi as our ancestor, wouldn't we be betraying our true ancestor?"
Then, Emperor Zhu simply put the matter aside.
Then, Zhu Jian, who was actually impersonating Zhu Xi's descendant, felt very unhappy.
Who are you alluding to, you stinking beggar monk?
Then, Zhu Jian continued his practice of printing money and grain registers without proper documentation, and he became increasingly reckless in doing so.
According to Zhu Jian, if only a few of us were to engage in the practice of printing money and grain rations without proper documentation, we would not only earn little money, but we would also be in trouble if we were discovered.
If all the officials in the thousand or so prefectures and counties of the Ming Dynasty could be implicated, a situation would arise where the law would not punish the masses.
After a brief discussion, Zhu Shouchun and the other officials realized that this was indeed the case.
Think about it, the Ming Dynasty was so short of officials that even peasants could be recruited to become officials, and scholars could enter the imperial court.
So even if Emperor Zhu was ruthless, he couldn't possibly kill all the officials in more than a thousand prefectures and counties, could he?
He always had to consider whether he had enough officials to govern the country.
Moreover, Zhu Jian had even come up with excuses for the officials.
The practice of blank-printing money and grain registers was an old custom that existed as early as the Yuan Dynasty, and officials were already accustomed to it.
It's too far from the local area to the capital, and it takes too much time to go back and forth to check the money and grain registers.
Then, Zhu Jian patted his chest and assured the officials that he had some connections at sea and could seamlessly exchange all the lost ironware, grain, and other items for money.
As a result, under the temptation of "making money together and sharing the blame together," the officials, who were already quite unrestrained, became even more unrestrained.
The magistrate of County A tried to seduce the magistrate of County B, and the magistrate of County B tried to seduce the magistrate of County C.
The blank printing screen was then woven larger and larger.
Zhu Shouchun cried and begged for a while, then looked at Yang Shaofeng with pleading eyes and said, "Your Highness, the guilty official has already confessed everything. This... shouldn't the guilty official be considered to have redeemed himself through meritorious service?"
Yang Shaofeng hummed in agreement and smiled, "That counts. With Prosecutor Xia as a witness, you've redeemed yourself through meritorious service."
But as soon as Zhu Shouchun was taken away by the inspector, Yang Shaofeng's expression changed from a grin to a sour one.
The speed at which he changed his expression was so fast that even the well-informed Xia Yu was amazed.
However, it was precisely because Yang Shaofeng's expression changed so quickly that Xia Yu noticed something was wrong.
Xia Yu cautiously sized up Yang Shaofeng and asked, "Son-in-law?"
Yang Shaofeng absentmindedly hummed in agreement, and Xia Yu tentatively asked, "Is there something wrong with what Zhu Shouchun said?"
Yang Shaofeng nodded again and said, "What Zhu Shouchun confessed may not be wrong, but there are definitely other issues behind this blank seal case."
Xia Yu was slightly taken aback, and Yang Shaofeng continued, "It went too smoothly."
It went far too smoothly.
The process of selecting the three names, Zhu Shouchun, Zhu Shoujin, and Liu Yuanqing, went too smoothly.
Zhu Shouchun's confession went too smoothly.
If the whole blank seal case really is that Zhu Jian behind it, then how stupid must Zhu Jian be?
Or, how stupid must Xia Yu, the head of the inspection team, be to be unable to catch Zhu Shouchun, Zhu Shoujin, and Liu Yuanqing, or trace them back to Zhu Jian?
If Zhu Jian had already been found in the original history, then why was Zhu Jian's name not mentioned in the historical blank seal case?
Did Zhu Chongba, that old man, have some unavoidable predicament?
Don't ever say that Zhu Chongba was considering Zhu Xi's reputation.
Given Zhu Chongba's stubborn temper, even if Zhu Xi himself were to be resurrected, as long as he dared to commit the "empty seal case" in the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Chongba would dare to send him back to the capital. Not to mention someone who is separated from Zhu Xi by countless generations and is even a fraudulent descendant of Zhu Xi.
What other messy and messy things are going on here?
Yang Shaofeng became more and more confused the more he thought about it.
As the great historian once said, "When something is truly bizarre, it must be haunted by ghosts."
The famous, decadent writer Mr. Miao Ting once said, "There must be something fishy about things that are out of the ordinary."
It's impossible for someone like Zhu Jian, who falsely claims to be a descendant of Zhu Xi, to create such a huge stir.
After a long silence, Yang Shaofeng looked at Xia Yu and said, "Prosecutor Xia, could you send Zhu Jian, or any of the gentry and officials involved in the case, to Dengzhou Prefecture?"
Xia Yu hesitated for a moment before replying, "These officials can be sent to Dengzhou Prefecture, but there are too many gentry, so it may take a while before they can be sent."
Yang Shaofeng nodded again and said, "Then I'll have to trouble Inspector Xia."